It was another fantastic race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Jimmie Johnson tied Dale Earnhardt Sr. for 7th in all time wins with his 76th career victory. It was an old school kind of race as we seen 210 laps of green flag racing before seeing a caution. It was the first race in 2016 with the new rules package and while it is tough to come to a conclusion with a small sample size one thing hasn't changed. Kevin Harvick and Jimmie Johnson dominate intermediate tracks. Harvick lead the most laps (131) while Johnson and the #48 team made a strategic short pit and won the race.
This week NASCAR heads to Las Vegas for the Kobalt 400. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is another mile and a half intermediate track much like Atlanta. There is less banking here which should definitely help the tires from falling off so fast, making the cars loose and tough to control. It will again be a race where we will want to target two or three drivers who will be up front and lead a ton of laps. In four of the last five years there has been a driver who has dominated the laps lead category, leading over 110 laps. It will also be a another great opportunity to target drivers starting farther back at the start of the race. There has been at least five and as many as nine drivers who finished the race with a double digit positive place differential.
As always, qualifying and practice times are very important when setting daily fantasy NASCAR lineups. Be sure to join the chat to stay up to date with breaking news from practice or qualifying. There will also be a short update added to the article following final practice. Now onto the picks.
Daily Fantasy NASCAR: DraftKings DFS Lineup Picks
Jimmie Johnson - $10,300
Coming off a win last week which saw him tie Dale Earnhardt Sr. with 76 career wins. Look for the #48 team to carry that momentum over into the west coast swing as he looks to make history and overtake one of the best drivers the sport has ever seen. In his last five races at Vegas he has one Top 5, three Top 10's and has led the series with 180 laps led. The new rules package, which has created more challenging driving due to loose cars, caters to Jimmie's racing style. Last week's win was an early sign of a fantastic year for the six time series champion.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. - $9,000
Looking at track history, Dale Jr. leads the series with a 6.2 average finish over the past five years here at Las Vegas. He has tallied two Top 5's and has finished inside the Top 10 in each race. He has yet to win a race here but his time is coming. He is coming off a runner up last week in Atlanta and has been vocal in saying he loves the new rules package and how it creates a feel of old school racing.
Ryan Newman - $7,500
He makes a tremendous value with a mid $7k price tag. While it all depends on qualifying, Newman comes back to Vegas with a good track history. Over the past five years he has three Top 5's, four Top 10's and a 11.4 average finish. He is coming off an 11th at Daytona and a disappointing 24th last week so expect a bounce back at one of his best tracks.
Paul Menard - $6,500
In the previous five years here at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Menard holds the second best average (8.8) to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s 6.2 average finish. He has picked up a Top 5 and three Top 10 finishes and is coming off back to back 18th place finishes. It all depends on qualifying but with a mid $6K price tag you would be happy with a Top 15 finish.
Brian Scott - $5,400
Coming in at near minimum pricing this week, rookie Brian Scott makes a terrific GPP play here at Las Vegas. The only issue would be if he qualifies as well as he did last week creating a negative projection for place differential. if he qualifies outside the top 20 this week he should be able to provide some value. He raced here for the first time last season in the #33 car and finished 13th.
DFS & Fantasy NASCAR Chat Room
If you have any questions leading up to the race hit me up in the chat below!
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